Vault 2
by KandiKisses19
Summary: Jessica Green was the Chief of Security. One month after the bombs fell, the Overseer made her go out and see if they could come out of hiding. The story is better than the summary, I promise ;)
1. Chapter 1

**CHAPTER ONE**

I stand, gaping at the door of Vault 2. The bombs have finally stopped falling less than a month ago. And they want _me _to go out… there… and check things out. I haven't been outside of the vault for at least three months.

My name is Jessica Green and I am the chief of security for Vault 2, located in what used to be Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

The vault overseer wants me to go out there because I am 'chief of security'. He just doesn't like me and wants me to die of radiation poisoning. Figures. I suppose I shouldn't have worked with those troublemaking teenagers to pull pranks on Overseer Segunda, but it gets so boring being chief of security. There's nothing to do besides lots of paper pushing.

Him and his personal bodyguards 'convinced' me to go outside and investigate the world, so here I stand. And here I have been standing for what feels like hours. I can't go out there. It's not safe. And Segunda definitely knows that. We were supposed to stay in the vault for at least a year after the bombs stopped falling. But no, "it'll be fine," the overseer said to me, with guns pointed.

I take a deep breath, possibly my last, and pull the lever. The door slowly creaks open. I gasp at how bright it is outside. Sure it _is_ 10 a.m. but shouldn't there be waves of green everywhere? A blackened sun and deadly fumes? But there's the sun, shining as bright as ever.

Stepping outside still seems deadly. There is absolutely no vegetation in sight. Any trees that are left are just charred stumps. I take another deep breath and exhale sharply. It's now or never. There's no way I'd be able to return to the vault without news of the outside. I would be dead, literally.

I place my right foot on what used to be grass but is now blackened soil. Then my left. I decide to leave the door to the vault open in case I need to make a quick getaway.

It is dead silent outside. Not a bird can be seen or heard. Although there are no more trees for them to live in. I look at the ground, scanning it. There are no insects. After a few deep breaths, I determine that the air outside is not what it used to be. It seems stifling and I really have to try to get oxygen in my lungs.

"Well, I guess it's okay," I say aloud to no one in particular. Then I realize that no one truly can hear me out here and I start screaming. I haven't been able to scream since I went in the vault. There are always ears listening in there. Besides, if someone heard you talk above a high whisper, you'd better either be on your deathbed or a young child. Anything else and you could be sent to the mental hospital. I know because dragging 'crazy' people to the asylum is one of my scarce duties. Segunda is trigger happy when it comes to sending people to the loony box. It's like he enjoys hearing moans of pain in the dead of night. And I'm fairly certain he conducts sick experiments on the patients.

I'm in the middle of screaming an incoherent sentence about how I hate Segunda when the coughing starts. I tell myself it's because of my weakened vocal chords, I haven't even talked in a while. But this coughing is way more than that. It takes more and more work to inhale after every cough. I start hacking up a dark green mucous and collapse to the ground. My eyes are burning. But I can't make it back to the door. I'm going to have to crawl. In between hacks, I try to rotate myself back towards Vault 2.

Before I can even turn 90 degrees, I start vomiting. It's a mixture of blood and the dark green mucous. I gasp at the sight of it, but that only makes me vomit more. My eyes are squeezed shut from the burning and I'm just trying to get my breathing back to normal. My heart seems to be beating out of place, and my abdomen is throbbing.

After a couple of minutes, I can finally breathe almost normally. It's still shallow and difficult, but I've stopped vomiting. I open my eyes and see a dog in the distance. _A dog? Out here?_ I didn't think it was possible for any creature to survive the nuclear blasts. Maybe I'm hallucinating.

It's coming closer, really low to the ground. It's dark brown and seems like it has six legs. I'm just about to question why a dog would have antennae when I realize it's not a dog.

It's a gigantic cockroach. And it's headed right for me.

I must have made too much noise. It probably hasn't heard any noise since the bombs were done. And I must look like the perfect meal to it. Great.

I try to get to my feet again but it's impossible. The air seems thinner even one foot off the ground. So I'm frantically trying to crawl back to the vault door when I start coughing again.

The door's getting closer, but so is the giant roach. I can hear it's wings flapping and it's feet scurrying. I'm praying that I don't throw up again when I finally get my hand back on the cool metal floor of the interior of the vault. I throw the lever and watch as the door slowly creaks closed again. _Please, please close before the roach gets in here._

The door slams shut, trapping just a couple of inches of antennae inside the vault. I can hear it screech and see the antennae twisting. I am in serious danger of puking again.

I can hear footsteps coming towards me. I find my footing again and smooth out my uniform. There is Overseer Segunda, with an expectant look on his face. "Well?" he asks me.

I take a moment to catch my breath and respond, "It is so not safe out there."

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	2. Chapter 2

**CHAPTER TWO**

Right after Segunda talked to me, I was ushered by my fellow officers into a room for questioning. There are two tables, with a giant sheet of glass separating them. There are just five small holes punctured through, so people can talk to each other. It's like when prisoners visit with loved ones. I sit down in one of the chairs and Segunda walks in and sits on the other side of the glass.

Segunda leans forward in his seat and clasps his hands together. "What happened? Don't leave a thing out."

I shake my head as the details come back. "Well, I opened the door, stepped out, couldn't breathe, started coughing, and then I started puking," I say, rattling off everything with obvious annoyance in my voice. How dare he send me out there, when I didn't even want to go!

Segunda is nodding his head and jotting notes down on a legal pad. "Anything else?" He is getting pretty excited about this. Never mind the fact that I almost died.

"Hmm… let's see," I say, pretending to think. "Oh yeah. I was almost killed by a gigantic cockroach! It was bigger than a dog!" I am angry. And scared. But Segunda doesn't care about that.

His eyes open wide. "A giant cockroach, you say? Amazing." Before I can even respond, Segunda walks out, mumbling something to himself.

About two seconds later, people in hazmat suits are entering the room. I'm being carried away and put into another room. A bigger one, filled with hospital equipment and doctors. I'm handed a hospital gown and being told to change. The chief of surgery walks in with his clipboard. "Name?" he's asking me.

"Uh, Jessica Green. You know me, Abe." I give him a confused look. Me and Abe were best friends growing up, but during high school, something changed. He became all serious and had no time for fun. And I stayed the opposite, kind of a party girl at heart, never serious about anything. Then we ended up signing up for spots in the same vault.

"I know, just protocol, ma'am," he says in a monotonous tone. "Age?"

I roll my eyes. Me and Abe are the same age. These questions are so stupid. Doctors, with their protocol. "28," I say, fighting off the sarcastic tone.

"Ethnicity?"

"I'm fricking white, Abe."

"Marital status?"

God, how I hate that question. I'm pushing 30 and I still haven't found that 'special someone'. And living in a vault makes it so much harder.

"Single," I say sheepishly. Then I scan the room to make sure no hot doctors are around. But Abe's the only one not wearing a hazmat suit. "Hey, what's with the suits?" My eyes fly open. "Am I dying?" After that question the universe decides to make me let out a disgusting, wet cough that takes me minutes to quiet. _Oh man, I am dying._

Abe gives me what I think is supposed to be a sympathetic look, and keeps asking questions. "Ever been pregnant?"

"No.""Are you sexually active?"

There's another embarrassing question. "No." Don't get me wrong, I've had sex. It's just that I haven't done it since college. I've never really had a serious relationship, or really cared to get one.

Abe shoots me a couple more questions and I answer them with as little words and as little sarcasm as I can muster. I keep trying to ask him if I'm going to die but he won't answer, he just shakes his head and asks another question. I am so pissed at Segunda for making me go out there. He should have been the one to exit the vault, he's the overseer.

Now I'm getting poked and prodded with needles. I think going through the Police Academy was easier. Someone in a hazmat suit puts my long black hair up in a hairnet type thing and I'm wheeled over to a smaller room. A room that has the words 'quarantine' and 'biohazard' on them. Uh-oh. I really hope Segunda pays me a visit. I have a few words for him.

"Can someone just tell me what's going on with me?" I almost shout. I am so fed up with all this silence and quarantine business. I deserve to know what's happening to me.

Someone in one of those suits answers. "We'll know more when we get your test results back, Miss Green."

I just cross my arms and slump down in my bed. This sucks. I should have just taken the bullet to the head from Segunda's crones. The hazmats are running around, setting up different machines. I just sit and take it all in. I wonder how long it's going to take for me to die.

The coughing gets worse everyday. I can't even get out of the bed anymore. I think it's been a week since I went outside. Segunda hasn't come by to visit me. Coward. I'm vomiting a lot, too. I can't keep anything down so now I have a pump in my stomach that directly sends food there. I've still been losing weight fast though. I also have to have a catheter in since I can't get up to go to the bathroom. It was embarrassing at first, but now I just don't care. I don't even really bother to think anymore.

It's been about three weeks since I was outside. My hair has started to fall out and my skin has started to scab all over. Maybe I have leprosy. I started to freak out when I saw the first cluster of scabs form and the hazmats tried to knock me out, but regular sedatives don't work on me anymore. I wonder what's happening to me. Maybe I'm going to get powers and become a superhero. Though I doubt it.

It has been two months and my hair is almost completely gone. Some of the scabs have fallen off, exposing raw and rotted looking flesh. The catheter and stomach pump fell out. It doesn't really matter because I haven't thrown up in a while and going to the bathroom happens rarely. I heard some of the hazmats whispering and saying I'm the start of the zombie apocalypse. If this is true, I know exactly whose brains I'm going to eat first.

Three months. I can feel my trachea clearly through my throat. My nose and ears have even rotted off. I don't know how or why this is happening but it's not painful at all. I don't need nearly as much food or water as I used to. Which is good because the hazmats barely even enter the room anymore. When they have to, they hold their breaths and finish everything quickly while they're in here. I probably smell terrible, but how would I know? I don't have a nose anymore.

Four months. I barely have any skin left. How in the world am I not dead? Maybe the Grim Reaper forgot to collect my soul but I'm still dying, rotting away. My voice sounds really weird now, deep and scratchy. I try not to talk. Now I've heard the hazmats saying that they're going to kill me so they can just end all this. I would normally agree with them, but I hate them so much. But what else can I do, besides going back outside?

I never have any visitors. Of course. I wouldn't want to see myself. I've been feeling stronger for some reason though, so I don't stay in the bed nearly as much. I'm too afraid to venture in the bathroom and check myself out in the mirror. People regularly call me a zombie now. It kind of hurts my feelings, and that feels really childish to admit to myself, but it's true. No one respects me. No one cares what I'm feeling.

I finally looked in the mirror. I almost had a heart attack. Short hair in little patches, no nose or ears, my exposed throat, very little skin. I'm a monster. I would try stabbing myself but I don't think it would kill me.

It's been five months and I've had enough. No one even looks at me anymore. I can't even stand myself. Besides, I'm strong enough to walk and I don't want to stay in this vault anymore. I'm not sure if they'll even let me leave since I'm supposed to be quarantined until I die or get better. I really don't think either one is going to happen.

"I want to leave!" I shout to the camera in the corner. There's a crackle over the intercom in the room, then Segunda's voice blares through. "You can't leave. You might infect the residents of the vault," he says matter-of-factly.

I take a moment to collect my anger. "No, I don't mean leave the room. I want to leave the vault."

After a couple of seconds, he responds. "Well, I'm afraid that's quite impossible, Miss Green. You'll die out there."

"I'll take my chances. I'd rather die out there than rot to death in here!"

"It won't happen. I'm sorry, Miss Green." Segunda says with little pauses between each word, as if he's losing his patience. I'm the one that's on lockdown.

"You can put me in a hazmat suit. Everyone else will be fine."

"No." He says that one last word and the intercom crinkles back off. Why would he want me to stay here? Aren't I a waste of space, a waste of food, the little that I eat?

Then I realize. Segunda's keeping me here so he can watch me. I've become one of his experiments. I'm something he's never seen before, and now he wants to study me. He doesn't care about me or how I feel or what I want - he just wants to watch me rot and see how long it takes for me to finally succumb to my drastic illness.

Well I won't have it. I'm going to leave whether he likes it or not. I can feel all the rage that's been built up inside for the past half a year growing. It's threatening to escape as I focus on my hate. I start almost shaking with anger, and my vision turns red.

"You can't make me stay here!" I scream as loud as I can, in my grating voice. I walk over to the glass door that only opens with a code and smash it almost easily with my arm. I'm shocked at my strength for a moment, but that gets replaced by the rage again. The hazmats hear the glass shatter and they clear out of the area. I find my old uniform in a bin outside of my room and take it. There's no way I'll be wearing this hospital gown out in the open. I decide to put on the uniform now. Everyone's too scared to approach me anyway, so why not?

After the uniform is on, I pick up a shard of glass just in case I need to fight my way out of here. I am stomping down the hallway, making as much noise as I can. People are screaming and running to their rooms. I don't think anyone will want to fight me. I find my way back to my old living quarters and am relieved to find them uninhabited. I rifle through everything and grab my trusty 10mm and a lot of ammo. I fasten the gun to the side of my pants. I find a large bag and put the ammo in it. I put some extra outfits in the bag and head to the cafeteria.

It's completely deserted in the café, no surprise there. I saunter over to the back and grab 10 water bottles and several ready-to-eat meals. I'm questioning if I'm ready to leave yet when I remember Segunda. A smile creeps across my face as I think about the supply closet in his room, stocked with weaponry. Maybe he'll be there, too.

I make a detour to his room but halfway there, I get stopped by one of my previous co-workers.

"Officer Vasquez," I greet him calmly and give him a nod. He's confused at my pleasantries, given the spree I've been on and I almost laugh.

"Chief Green. What do you think you're doing?" He puts his hand on his holster and I raise my eyebrow at him. Does he really think he can shoot his best friend and co-worker? "I'm leaving, Vasquez. So if you'd please." I motion for him to move but he just tightens his grip on his Glock.

"Can't let you leave. Overseer Segunda's orders."

My face darkens when I realize that no one is on my side. Just another reason that I have to leave this vault. I take a step forward and quick as lightning, Vasquez has his gun out and it's aimed right at my chest.

I gasp and put my hands up. "What are you doing, man? Aren't we friends?"

He looks sad for a moment and then his face hardens. "I can't be friends with a monster. Sorry, Green. Just following orders."

Then he pulls the trigger and I can feel the bullet entering my chest.

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